Management programme for young leaders

In its bid to offer holistic management education, IIM Bangalore is launching a new programme aimed at young leaders with three-to-five years of experience —the General Management Programme for Young Leaders (YLP). The programme would also benefit first-generation entrepreneurs without any managerial experience. It aims to impart management lessons through a set of carefully selected Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), along with regular classroom interaction.

Today, young professionals take up bigger roles and managerial responsibilities at an early stage of their careers. Many of them also work for start-ups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), where they need to go beyond their technical knowledge. In such situations, decision making is sometimes a challenge. “IIMB, with its close association with industries, seeks to address this challenge by offering a unique programme for today’s young leaders. The programme provides a strong foundation in management and creates confidence in handling tough problems,” said Professor MS Narasimhan, programme director and faculty from the Finance & Accounting Area at IIMB.

While the very popular MOOCs have their own advantage, the mode of learning cannot be a substitute to in-class sessions at IIMB and learning with peers. Hence, the new programme seeks to combine these two types of learning for the best results. 

The programme will be offered through blended format leveraging technology. In addition to classroom sessions, the programme will use online courses developed by IIMB faculty. Although the basic content will be delivered through MOOCs, classroom engagement will be used for case discussions, management games, role plays, etc. During online course weeks, there will be a close follow-up with the participants to ensure that learning takes place uniformly. 

There will also be multiple assessments, including quality of discussion in the discussion forum. In other words, the online course will be rigorous.

For this programme, 10 management core courses which provide a holistic view of, and strong foundation for, management have been identified. This will enable young leaders to handle their business problems with confidence and ease. The ten courses are divided into two modules:

• Foundations for Management: Business & economics, organisation design for creating competitive advantage, business communication, business statistics and analytics, accounting for decision making
• Functional Management: Operations management, marketing management, corporate finance, people management, strategic management

The courses will be taught online; at least one-day lecture will be provided per course during the campus module by IIMB faculty members. The MOOCs will be completed by the participants on the IIMBx platform.

The YLP aims to understand the impact of macro-economic changes on businesses; provide analytical and communication skills to young managers; provide the acumen to gain a strong working knowledge in managing different functions like production, marketing, finance and human relations; provide confidence in managing accounting and financial matters.

For details, check out: http://www.iimb.ac.in